1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an opening cylinder unit for open-end spinning machines comprising a shaft rotatably mounted in a bearing housing, on whose free end projecting from the bearing housing an opening cylinder is fixedly mounted, which is preferably covered by a removable, axially placed cover at its front side not facing the bearing housing and which engages over the bearing housing forming a hollow space, which is sealed towards the bearing housing by an annular sealing gap.
2. Brief Description of the Relevant Art
Such an opening cylinder unit is described in the DE-OS 27 52 591. A hollow space formed by the opening cylinder is provided there to protect the bearing of the opening cylinder shaft against soilings such as microdust, which is sealed by a sealing gap between the bearing housing and the opening cylinder. Even if one makes this sealing gap as narrow as possible, one cannot completely prevent dust and impurities from penetrating into the hollow space and from there into the bearing. Since this dust may lead to a certain sluggishness of the opening cylinder, it is desirable to clean the hollow space from time to time. In the known opening cylinder unit the opening cylinder must be removed from the shaft for this purpose, and this is relatively complicated.
An opening cylinder unit is moreover known from DE-PS 31 23 480, in which the opening cylinder unit consists substantially of a basic body and an opening cylinder ring with clothings, which is mounted on it. In this opening cylinder unit the hollow space is covered by the opening cylinder ring. If one wants to clean the hollow space it is still necessary that at least the opening cylinder ring is removed. Since the opening cylinder ring is pressed onto the basic body by means of a clamping element, the exposing of the hollow space for cleaning purposes is relatively expensive, too.